Sacred Snow

Our friends Matt & Renee finally came to visit us! After what I believe has been 4 other unsuccessful attempts to visit us, they finally made it. It sure was fun to see them, and meet their son Jaeden. Of course, we did what we've done for all other visitors... go see the church historical sights.

We didn't take a ton of pictures (mostly because we've already got a bunch from other trips to the sights)... but we did get a few of a snowy Sacred Grove. Most people don't get to see it in the winter ('cause let's face it, it's cold!) But it's very peaceful and pretty. We didn't see anyone else in the grove our whole time there.

It was a quick trip for the Memmotts. But it was very nice to see them and get to spend a little time together. People always ask us if we're going to miss New York when we move... and the answer is yes, at least certain parts. How many other people get to live in the Cradle of the Restoration? We've been here for (almost) 4 years... living right where the Church was reorganized... getting to tour these sacred sights so many times that we've lost count. It's special every single time we go. We'll miss it, definitely.

I love visitors

Our friends Kelley and Neil flew out from Utah to visit us over the weekend, and we had a blast! Of course, what do you do when you come to western New York?

Niagara Falls, of course!

Looking snazzy in our Maid of the Mist ponchos

Taughannocks Falls - 215 feet tall

Buttermilk Falls, down in Ithaca

Buttermilk Falls

Buttermilk Falls

Buttermilk Falls

Buttermilk Falls

Of course, you have to go to Palmyra and see the church historical sites. First, we did a session in the temple.

Looking down the Hill Cumorah, with the stage set for the pageant.

It had just started raining by the time we were touring the Joseph Smith Farm. We thought we'd walk quickly through the Sacred Grove and be ok. Boy were we wrong! The paths in the Sacred Grove had turned into rivers (I kid you not) and the water was over my ankles! I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I didn't want to ruin my camera. However, in this video you can see how hard it was raining! We had umbrellas, but they were just no match for the storm.

And the aftermath of the storm... we were soaked. I could have gone swimming in my clothes and been just as wet. If you look closely in the picture, you can see I'm wringing out my skirt.

Yes, it was quite the adventure. The sun came out in the afternoon, and it dried us off a bit, so we stayed to see a few more sites (and all the good pictures are on Kelley's camera). It was a fabulous time and so good to see Kelley and Neil! Thanks for coming to visit guys :)

Wine tour

Yep, that's right. We went on a wine tour. Friends invited us to go as the designated drivers -- and offered to pay for our tickets, let us drive their minivan, and give us an extra $50 to put up with them -- so we agreed. It turned out to be so much fun! I know most people don't think of 'wine country' and 'upstate New York' as the same thing, but there are tons of wineries around. We drive past them all the time, but never stop - so we thought it would be a great way to see some wineries and more of this beautiful part of the country we've called home for the past 3 years.

We hit 16 wineries in 9 hours. Wow. At each winery, you got a taste of a prepared food, paired with some feature wines (we had grape juice, water and lemonade instead). Each food featured a particular herb - and you got a recipe of the food, plus an herb to take home and plant. So, for example, we had this very tasty bruschetta at one of the wineries - and then got a tomato plant to take home. At another one, they had this divine jalapeno bread, and then gave you a jalapeno plant. Most of the places also had cheese and crackers for tasting. A couple of them had fudge (yum!) Some had salsa, jams, and assorted dips. You get the idea...

This picture says upstate New York... there's thousands of barns like this one; they're everywhere.

Our first winery - Scott & Krista, Jessica, Pat & Carissa, me & Cory

Most of the wineries are situated very close to Cayuga Lake, making for a very nice view.

The weather was gorgeous - highs in the 80's and very sunny. Sooo nice!!

Cory and I bought what we're jokingly calling 'Mormon wine'. It's grape juice, made locally at one of the wineries. It was very tasty - and pure. It's not made from concentrate, no high fructose corn syrup - nothing but smooshed grapes.

Just the girls, at our last winery

Me holding all the plants we got. 16 of them. Now we need to go buy some planter boxes.

Off the top of my head, we got: oregano, dill, rosemary, pumpkin, tomato, purple pepper, jalepeno, thyme, sage... and a bunch more. We're going to have our own little herb garden, and I am quite excited about it. We got to see some beautiful wineries, got sunburned, made stronger friendships, and overall had a great time!

Our nation's capitol

We took advantage of the 3-day weekend and turned it into a 5-day weekend. We went down to Washington D.C. to spend time with our friends Em & Brett. Thanks guys, for such a great trip! It was our 3rd time visiting D.C., but we still found plenty of stuff we hadn't seen!

Capitol Building

We went on a tour of the Capitol Building, and it was pretty neat to see the inside. This is the hallway leading to the House of Representatives' chamber (they were in session while we were there). We even saw Nancy Pelosi, on her way to session.

Capitol Building Rotunda

Old Supreme Court offices, in the basement of the Capitol Building (they don't use the offices anymore)

Cory doing his best to look like a hoodlum in front of the FBI building

The White House

The White House

Washington Monument

Vietnam Memorial Wall (so cool to see!)

Korean Monument

We rode the elevator up the Washington Monument, and the view was awesome. This is overlooking the mall, down to the Capitol Building.

White House, as seen from the top of the Washington Monument

Monument to the Marines - better known as Iwo Jima. It was so huge! Much bigger than I was expecting...

Iwo Jima

Washington National Cathedral. Very cool inside. This is where Pres. Obama came for prayer service the day after he was sworn in.

National Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral - way cool

Monument at the Pentagon Building. Each bench is designated to a specific person.

Pentagon Memorial - such a sobering place to visit

Our romantic Valentines Dinner. It was really yummy. We made the boys' favorite - chicken cordon bleu.

Cory playing around with a bottle - I snapped the picture at the perfect moment.

It was 'Restaurant Week' in D.C. and so we took advantage of it. Really fancy places that are usually $80/plate (or more) offer a limited selection from their menus, and let people come in for much less than normal price. We paid $20/plate for lunch. We ate at Il Mulino, an Italian place. Best food I've ever had, hands down. The cheesecake was to DIE for.

Ford's Theatre, where Abe Lincoln was shot.

After he was shot, he was taken across the street to the Peterson home. He died in back room of the house.

Inside Ford's Theatre

The box where Lincoln was seated.

Ford's Theatre

Em discovered how to make the Wingers sauce (and for those of you who don't know, I loooove Wingers sauce!) So we had Wingers night at their house ... it was tasty!!

We also went to see the monuments at night. Very cool! This picture is taken at Iwo Jima, and you can see the Lincoln Monument, Washington Monument & Capitol in the distance.

Iwo Jima at night

Washington Monument at night

On our way home, we stopped and did a session at the D.C. temple.

Yeah, it's a gorgeous building, inside and out.

I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures to just these; we took so many! We had dinner with my aunt & uncle and enjoyed our time with them (though we totally forget to get a picture of the evening). We also wandered through the Museum of American History and saw the original U.S. flag; the one that hung over Ft. McHenry to signify victory and inspired The Star Spangled Banner. No pictures allowed, since it's in a climate controlled room. Still very cool. It's much larger than I expcted.

Spending time with Em, Brett & Abby was just wonderful. We miss being close to friends and family, so we're happy when we can go visit people we love. Plus the history in D.C. is fascinating. All in all, one fabulous trip!